The past weekend saw the GWSR have it's second Volunteer Recruitment Fair. Last year was a bumper year all round and it saw a first, highly successful, Fair that saw the volunteer staff numbers rise still further. With the ever approaching Broadway opening next year the need for even more volunteers is a primary priority. On the Sunday Andy Durham, Tony Richards and I (with a number of visitors/helpers) were given the job of trying to sell the delights of the diesel department......shouldn't be too hard, surely!? We had a number of interested parties that put their name down as interested in working exclusively with the Diesels - a number of specialist engineers, a welder and a number that had no engineering skills at all but were keen to get their hands dirty. We also had a number of people stop by to ask questions as they were curious as to what we did (and why), some who just wanted to ask questions and those who were potentially going to volunteer but wanted to check out their options first. All in all it seemed like the weekend was very productive.
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| The beautifully laid out Department table! |
It was also a Green timetable running day which meant one steam engine, one diesel and the DMU. D6948 was rostered to make its bow on normal service trains after its restoration. On the Saturday she had worked admirably (with one slight fault occurring) and Sunday was another good day. The sunshine really showed off the BR Green livery and many a comment was passed about how good she looked and sounded. Heading the maroon rake one could almost imagine it was the Western Region in the 1960s! Unfortunately the boiler was only used in anger on one run on the Saturday due the warm, sunny weather but, on that run, seemed to work well after being tinkered with last weekend. Guess we'll have to wait until later in the year to use it again to heat the stock.
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| Neil Carr awaits the tip from the Guard on the 1330 Toddington - Cheltenham Racecourse. |
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| With the 'Right Away' given D6948 makes her way towards Cheltenham. |
Despite lots of members of the public milling about work was still required on the fleet to bring them out of their winter slumbers. This involved a shunt during mid morning which gave the lucky public present in the diesel shed a first hand, close up, look at these machines being moved. Queue many comments of 'Aren't they impressive' from the assembled public!! With cordons up to prevent inadvertent public access, Matt P used Class 47, No. 47376 '
Freightliner 1995' to move Class 73, No. E6036 and Class 20, D8137 out into the yard for ongoing maintenance. 47376 was having its post winter shakedown ready for its first use of the year. The Class 20 was having more work on its Exhauster and Compressor group.
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| Under the watchful eye of Tim L, Matt draws 47376 'Freightliner 1995' into the shed. |
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| Steve M 'goes under' to couple up his Class 20. |
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| One of the most dangerous jobs on the railway - coupling up! |
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| D8137 is drawn out into the sunshine as the public are kept at a safe distance behind the camera. |
Elsewhere in the diesel shed, keeping well out the way, Kev (the current Department Manager) was busy organising some of the sizeable amount of spares that have accumulated in the Growler Group container. A mundane, but vital job when keeping 100 tonnes of 50+ year old locomotive in working order.
And, finally, Sulzer Type 4, No. 45149, owned by the Cotswold Mainline Diesel Group (who also own Sulzer Type 2, No. D5343 (26043)), was sat out on the depot apron having its batteries charged after its winter maintenance. When in BR service the loco carried the unofficial name of 'Phaeton' which was applied at Tinsley Depot in Sheffield. During the 1980's the painters at Tinsley went through a spate of 'namings' with many of its allocated locomotives that still wore standard BR Blue or Revised Blue liveries receiving painted on embellishments that covered a variety of subjects including birds, warplanes and mythical creatures. Included in this list was another GWSR resident, 47105, that received the name 'Goldcrest' in 1989.
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| The heaviest loco on the GWSR, Class 45 No. 45149. |
Diesel Roster -
47376 is out this weekend (8th and 9th of April) on the
GREEN Timetable with three round trips between Toddington and Cheltenham. If the
weather stays as good as it has this week then it is a perfect excuse to
sample the most powerful locomotive in the fleet!
Over the Easter weekend we have the RED timetable which sees a diesel locomotive work the 1555 Toddington - Cheltenham and 1640 return. Rostered over that weekend are:
- Class 26 (Sulzer Type 2) D5343 on Good Friday 13/04
- Class 47 (Brush Type 4) 47376 'Freightliner 1995' on Saturday 14/04
- Class 45 (Sulzer Type 4) 45149 on Sunday 15/04 and Bank Holiday Monday 16/04.
